Cardi B Countersues ‘Self-Serving and Controlling’ Former Manager

Cardi B has filed a countersuit against her former manager, Klenord “Shaft” Raphael, founder of KSR Records, Variety reports. The new lawsuit was filed on Thursday. It follows Raphael’s own suit filed in April, in which her former manager claimed breach of contract after the rapper left him for new managers Kevin Lee and Pierre Thomas. The pair is also named in Raphael’s lawsuit.

Cardi B’s (given name Belcalis Almanzar) new suit alleges that Raphael’s original suit “arises out of the deceitful and disloyal conduct of a self-serving and controlling personal manager.”

Cardi B’s countersuit claims that as she rose in prominence, “so too did Shaft’s greed,” claiming that “Shaft proved increasingly willing to take advantage of, deceive and exploit Ms. Almanzar, and he had the ability to do so through complete control over all legal documents and virtually every dollar that Ms. Almanzar earned in the entertainment business.”

The countersuit states that Shaft allegedly “unconscionably used his position of trust as a fiduciary to extract a larger portion of Ms. Almanzar’s earnings.” The suit cites a deal Raphael allegedly made with Atlantic Recording Corporation where Raphael “inserted his wholly-owned entity KSR to be paid 50% of all of Ms. Almazar’s record royalties and required Ms. Almanzar to assign all copyrights in any audio or video recordings to KSR as well as 50% of Ms. Almanzar’s authored compositions.” According to TMZ, Cardi B is countersuing Raphael for more than $15 million.

In April, Raphael sued Cardi B as well as her new managers Lee and Thomas and publicist/stylist Patientce Foster, claiming that her new management deal was not valid due to her pre-existing contract with his company. Raphael is suing for breach of contract, unjust enrichment, declaratory judgment and defamation and he’s seeking damages “not less than $10,000,000.”